Localismo, desempenho institucional e (in)justiça territorial

The emergence of localisms in the context of Brazilian federalism stimulates the recent debate on territorial justice in geography. The objective of this article is to contribute to this debate by a comparative analysis of the institutional performance of the 81 municipalities in the State of Bahia, Brazil, emancipated since the 1980s, according to the Territorial Management Performance Index (IGT in the Portuguese acronym) and the typological framework consisting of 20 types services (social, economic, managerial, and infrastructure). The methodological procedures for the preparation of calculations involved the secondary data collection around performance indicators related to: a) planning, control and management instruments; b) political decentralization; and c) justice and public security. For the typological framework, the procedures included fieldwork and accomplishment of 112 semi-structured interviews with 16 leaders from each municipality. The results showed that the new emancipated municipalities have been involving in social, participative, and managerial terms. However, it still presents indices of territorial injustice due to the lack of services such as sewerage, security, leisure, and legal assistance. The conclusion is that territorial injustice is, in fact, the most representative content of the places in Bahia.Main ideas: Research article on how municipalities’ emancipations are examples of local actions. Localisms express the density of territorial justice of municipalities. The Territorial Management Performance Index (IGT) reveals the territorial (in)justice. The new municipalities shows territorial (in)justice.